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Tiberius J Smith
Tiberius James Smith is a well-regarded Starfleet captain and current commander of the USS Nevada. He is widely credited with solving the murder of Federation Ambassador Rylari Yarn and the victory at the Battle of Grazer. He is played by Rick Budd. Early Life On stardate 64001.04, the USS Dallas answered a distress signal from a small Federation mining colony in the Beta Quadrant. Twenty-three of the twenty-four inhabitants of the colony were found stabbed to death by a still unidentified assailant. The only survivor was a ten year old Tiberius J. Smith, who had been badly wounded and left for dead at the bottom of a pile of human remains. Smith was brought to Earth by Starfleet and raised by foster parents in a small town Southwest of Chicago, Illinois. By age fifteen he was already in frequent trouble with the law and found himself revolving in and out of juvenile justice facilities. After being arrested for public brawling at the age of twenty-one, Smith served three months of a twelve month sentence in a minimum security prison. He was released early in accordance with a program giving low level offenders who meet certain qualifications the opportunity to pay their debt to society by enlisting in Starfleet. Post-Enlistment and Starfleet Academy Starfleet turned out to be a perfect fit for Smith. As a natural at sports and physical combat skills, he was an instant star among enlisted men and was given the chance to matriculate into Starfleet Academy. Instructors and fellow pupils quickly branded him a political prodigy. He excelled in most academic areas throughout his tenure and was eventually placed into the Command track. Kobayashi Maru Shortly before his appointment to take the Kobayashi Maru command test, a disciplinary committee was convened and Smith was brought before it. A superior officer (herein unnamed) charged that Smith had attempted to blackmail him into reprogramming the simulation to allow for a victory condition which achieved all of the test's objectives (a normally impossible outcome). Threatened with expulsion, Smith argued his solution was merely a political extension of the much vaunted “cheating” strategy employed by James T. Kirk a century ago. The committee eventually determined Smith's actions were misguided, but not malicious. After issuing a formal apology to the complaining officer and the student body as a whole, Smith was allowed to continue in the command track. The incident was added to his service record and he was ordered to complete the test. During the simulation, Smith used his considerable political skill to back the Klingon commander into an interminable series of negotiations that went on for twenty-seven hours of real time. The instructors were eventually forced to discontinue the program due to Academy regulations governing Health and Training Standards for students. Smith was given a passing grade under the theory that his solution would have created enough time for Starfleet reinforcements to arrive, thus drastically altering the basic conditions of the test situation. Early Starfleet Career Smith quickly distinguished himself as a cunning strategist, fearless mission commander and a masterful manager of human resources. Despite this, he found himself being transferred from ship to ship and constantly passed over for promotion. Notations in his Starfleet personnel file suggest that his blemished Academy record left a lingering distrust among some superior officers and slowed what otherwise might have been a quick assent to the Captain's chair. U.S.S. Nevada In 2414, Smith was selected by Captain Silea to be First Officer of the USS Nevada, a position he would serve in honorably for the next eight years. While monitoring the Second Bajor Incident of 2422, Silea suffered a fatal heart attack on the bridge. In accordance with the Starfleet chain of command, Smith assumed the Captain's chair for the duration of the mission. After a review of a his exemplary service record, Starfleet Command made the appointment permanent. Involvement with Yarn Investigation Battle of Grazer